6/29/09 So who got the thresher at Capitola on the yak?

A few of my friends came over to see it and thought it was in the 45-50lb range....who knows. It did feel really heavy trying to lift it for a picture.

I was the one who caught the shark.  I appreciate most of your comments and, of course, knew I would get blasted about at least one or two things (my paddle and 'vest').  I was told the shark was about 5yrs old.  It was just over 31lbs after I gutted it(probably 5lbs worth of guts in it).  I woke up at 0445hrs to go fish and was out in the water by 0600hrs.  Paddled straight out to the point from New Brighton.  Nothing touched my line except for a seal, which took my sardine and a hook.  When the shark hit, I thought it was another seal.  My reel starting singing and I immediately starting looking for a seal to pop up. After about 20min I saw the shark do a quick tail dance and I then knew I had a thresher on.  My reel was smoking and I thought it may malfunction and I could lose the fish.  After about 25 more minutes I was able to get it next to my kayak to try to gaff it.  It took another run and nearly pulled me out of the kayak.  The tail whipped around and almost took out my fishfinder.  At that point I thought that maybe I had something abit more than I could handle.  I was considering  cutting it off or try to tire it out more and eventually boat him.  A few minutes later I saw a rental boat a few hundred yards from me.  I yelled them over to help me boat it.  After gaffing it, I gave it a very good beating and tied him on the kayak.  I gutted it a nearly tipped over two times trying to get it on top of boat.  It was a great experience getting that fish.  Never been towed like that, or seen my reel smoke.  I doubt I would try for anything bigger in the way of a thresher. You're just too low to the water and the tail could do some serious damage.  Just had some of it tonite at the firehouse.  Everyone loved it. It is very very tasty meat.  So, thats the story.  Go easy on me guys.

i would have kept it and i think they taste great. why not, not illegal and guys are keeping smaller leopards from the bay. i bet that meat is a lot better than had you caught an older fish.

good for you and i would have done likewise and smiled with each bite of it.

i have had both and leopards are nasty compared to a properly bled thresher. its nice to see someone care for their catch by bleeding it immediately to keep it fresh.

Wouldn't taking a sexual mature Adult be more harmful than a juvenile who has less of a chance of breeding?

i would have kept it and i think they taste great. why not, not illegal and guys are keeping smaller leopards from the bay. i bet that meat is a lot better than had you caught an older fish.

Sure, but leopards don't grow as large, so it's not a fair comparison. A 36" thresher is a newborn, but a 36" leopard is a spawner - big difference.

Wouldn't taking a sexual mature Adult be more harmful than a juvenile who has less of a chance of breeding?

Maybe, but in theory, every fish should be able to spawn at least once, I would think...

Wouldn't taking a sexual mature Adult be more harmful than a juvenile who has less of a chance of breeding?

Maybe, but in theory, every fish should be able to spawn at least once, I would think...

thats kind of romantic...

IMHO, it's more harmful to take out the matured Thresher due to the fact: "Thresher sharks are slow to mature, males reaching sexual maturity between 7 and 13 years of age and females between 8 and 14 years".  By the time it took a juvenile Thresher to mature, an adult Thresher could have reproduced between 20 - 40 offspring.

Maybe

in theory

I would think

 

Nice catch. I caught one in Moss Landing a long time ago but in a big boat.  Heck of a fight and I had to have my fish mates help me bring it in.  I don't know how you did it in a yak.  That must have been quite a scene.  I have no problem taking a fish I'm going to eat as long as it's not in the endangered list.  I have not fished on a yak yet because I'm still contemplating on buying one.  But now I know it's possible to reel in a big fish like that.  I can just imagine catching a 30lb salmon on a yak.

i dont really have a problem with someone keeping a small thresher.  while i wish that no one kept threshers at all, i understand the law is there to allow for it.  someone keeping like 1 thresher a day for a week, or some sort of overtake of the fisheries is what i would disagree with.

i am somewhat of a conservationist, but especially am a shark lover.  threshers are some of the coolest sharks in the ocean so i would never take one (probably cut it off/break it off if i could shorten the mono) but i don't think i've earned the right to judge others who are within their rights of the law.

I can just imagine catching a 30lb salmon on a yak.

Unfortunately we all can only just imagine that 

Killing apex predators is simply not sustainable. Sure, one guy can take a thresher, but if everyone did that , we would have no more threshers. There should be a size limit based on their size at sexual maturity, and a one per season limit, IMO.

Killing apex predators is simply not sustainable. Sure, one guy can take a thresher, but if everyone did that , we would have no more threshers. There should be a size limit based on their size at sexual maturity, and a one per season limit, IMO.

Ummm ... we're allowed to do that now.  And I'd guess that most people would take a thresher given the chance (hmm, maybe start a poll to verify this).  And we still have threshers around ...

-Allen

Killing apex predators is simply not sustainable. Sure, one guy can take a thresher, but if everyone did that , we would have no more threshers. There should be a size limit based on their size at sexual maturity, and a one per season limit, IMO.

Ummm ... we're allowed to do that now.  And I'd guess that most people would take a thresher given the chance (hmm, maybe start a poll to verify this).  And we still have threshers around ...

-Allen

I really don't like the "because we're allowed to" argument, as if CDFG was proactive in managing its fisheries.   Just like catch and release salmon fishing on the Sacramento River.  CDFG has historically managed fisheries when they realize they are almost gone (I'm not saying threshers are almost gone, just a point).  The large size some sharks attain and their fecundity scream for different management like what M2 and I are suggesting.